Mokinių žodyno ugdymas: mąstymo ir sociokultūrinio konteksto svarba

The article analyses the problems and opportunities of developing learners’ vocabulary. It discusses the links between language and thinking, the significance of the socio-cultural context in developing learners’ vocabulary, as well as the opportunities of vocabulary development applying different methods and ways of explaining meanings. The article addresses the following questions: what is the context of the development of learners’ vocabulary, what is the content of the (self-) development of learners’ vocabulary; what are the ways of vocabulary (self-) development; what are the tasks for vocabulary (self-) development? Language and culture are inseparable. National culture is easily understandable for a representative of the nation; he/she can easily handle different socio-cultural situations. Within the nation, we use the mother tongue: it unites people, whereas using other languages we assimilate the cultural values of the world. The perception of structures and images rather than individual facts has a great influence on thinking; information is best understood if it is provided in contextual situations. A particular role is ascribed to language. The speakers of other languages need to learn / understand the phenomena of a new culture that are expressed by new words or are related to new linguistic situations (e.g. etiquette). In other words, the learner’s competence is developed, which enables him/her to feel comfortable in a foreign society. A method has two meanings in foreign language didactics. In its narrower sense, it means a planned and consistent way of teaching and learning seeking for the attainment of a particular goal. In its broader sense, a method is a methodological-didactic conception, upon which educational process of planned and implemented. Keywords: language and thinking; sociocultural competence, sociocultural context, vocabulary development. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/zz.2017.6